The Catholic Church teaches that all people are made in the image of God and that everyone has inherent dignity. No one should face unjust discrimination. But human experience, considerable social data, as well as our religious convictions, lead us to see clearly that children thrive best in a stable family grounded on the marital union of one man and one woman. Catholic opposition to same-sex marriage is not a statement about the worth of human beings who experience same-sex attraction, but a statement about the nature of marriage itself.
Pope Francis recently said, “The image of God is the married couple: the man and the woman; not only the man, not only the woman, but both of them together. This is the image of God: love, God’s covenant with us is represented in that covenant between man and woman. And this is very beautiful!” Marriage is beautiful indeed, and the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference does not support this judge’s redefinition of this fundamental human institution. The PCC will further study the judge’s decision and is hopeful that an appeal will promptly be made.
A splendid public statement, carefully but forcefully expressed, that the whole Christian community ought to be able to affirm. The Catholic bishops in PA are reaffirming the classic Christian concept that there is such a thing as natural law. Aristotle was right about that, after all, and so was Thomas Aquinas. And so were the great Anglican theologians Richard Hooker and Joseph Butler, who were very Thomistic in that way. As was C. S. Lewis. See especially his apologetic work, [b]The Abolition of Man[/b].
Our foes on the left take it for granted that those of us refusing to jump on the pro-gay bandwagon are “on the wrong side of history.” In actuality, nothing could be further from the truth. The current fad is doomed to eventual failure. The bubble will inevitably burst, because it is futile to try to defy natural law. In the end, St. Paul will be proved right. As he takes for granted in Romans 1, homosexual behavior is indeed “contrary to nature,” and this will someday become manifest to almost everyone.
David Handy+
(FWIW, that’s post #3000 for me on this blog)